understanding the fundamental nature of Preventive conservation of the built cultural heritage

What is it about?

Preventive Conservation is argued to improve preservation of heritage at large. The UNESCO chair on Preventive Conservation, monitoring and maintenance of monuments and sites (PRECOMOS) has pushed research and collaboration to understand the nature of preventive conservation in the field of built heritage. These exchanges help to gradually gain a better insight into the nature and benefits of preventive conservation. In the built heritage field Preventive conservation seems to be understood differently than in the field or archaeology and the conservation of museum objects. Using the analogy with the world of medicine (an analogy often used in the conservation field) helps to understand more fundamentally what preventive conservation stands for. This contribution therefor will investigate whether this comparison cannot help to understand the systemic nature of preventive conservation. An analysis of practices in Flanders shared within the PRECOMOS UNESCO chair network helps to illustrate this point of view that deserves further investigation based on this concept.

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Why is it important?

we explain that the concept and implementation of preventive conservation in case of built heritage is based on a systemic approach of managing cultural heritage.

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